Student Profiles

Michael Campos

Capstone Project in Focus: The Hollywood Production Code and the Catholic Church

Combining what I have learned in my Media
Studies major as well as what I have continued to learn about Catholic
Studies and Social Thought, my capstone concerns the Hollywood
Production Code of 1934 and the involvement of the Catholic Church in
its writing. The influence of the Catholic Church is far reaching and
the introduction of a new medium, motion pictures, is no exception. This
new crusade against immorality in film during its "Golden Age" paved
the way for the way we view film today. I will look to trace the
transformation of the Legion of Decency to the current Office for
Film and Broadcasting to understand the involvement of the Church and
reasons for it. I will apply themes from Catholic Social Teaching that
will make clear the purpose of the Legion of Decency as well as through
an Aristotelian and Thomist analysis concerning virtues. This
undertaking has not only proved to be very arduous but, more
importantly, I have gained a better understanding of Catholic Social
Thought by applying teachings to the Hollywood Code.

Hannah Mora

Capstone Project in Focus: the Catholic Church in El Salvador

I was inspired to begin a Catholic Studies minor after taking
a Catholic Social Thought class that completely altered the way I
thought about
the relationship between Catholicism, politics, economics, and social
issues in
the world today. After taking Liberation Theology in El Salvador
during the spring semester of my junior year, I had the opportunity to
travel
to El Salvador
and to visit many of the different communities and organizations
working to
make a difference within the country. I
was so moved by the people and their faith that I returned for a month
long
summer course called El Salvador Today,
and have just recently returned from a third trip where I attended a
liberation
theology conference at the Universidad Centroamerican. As a result of
the immersion experiences, as
well as the work done in the classroom, I have been able to compile
research
and reflection for my capstone project concerning the split in Catholic
church
in El Salvador between the more conservative traditional church and the
more
liberal progressive church.